First of all, congratulations on your new job, it is well deserved. I wish you a long and successful stint as chief executive of Sainsbury’s. However, given the recent examples at Tesco, Manchester United and elsewhere, it would be remiss of someone not to point out the obvious lessons you need to learn about succeeding a long-standing leader. So, here are some tips that I thought would be useful for when you replace Justin King in July.

1) Don’t let the old boss back in the building

I realise that you and Justin are close, but once he leaves this summer he cannot be allowed into Sainsbury’s offices, or even its supermarkets. Do you want him looking over your shoulder, like Sir Alex Ferguson sitting in the directors’ box at Manchester United matches and spooking David Moyes? I am sure Justin will always say you are “doing a great job” and “just need time”, but it will leave the staff pining for past glories. He must be banned. Just make sure he always has tickets for the Formula One races.

Justin can tell you all about this – check out his profit warning in July 2004. By kitchen-sinking the company’s results, you lower everyone’s expectations and allow your performance to be judged in a different light. Justin is telling everyone he trebled Sainsbury’s profits from £254m in 2005 to £765m in 2013. That’s a bit sneaky. He only achieved this by lowering profits from £675m in 2004 through dramatically rebasing the margin, so he could spend hundreds of millions on cutting prices and improving the quality of food. It was a classic kitchen-sink job. David Moyes and Philip Clarke both tried to pretend everything was OK for a while at Manchester United and Tesco. Now look – they are battling to overhaul stagnating institutions.

3) Don’t sack the backroom staff

David Moyes and Philip Clarke took the axe to their support staff after taking charge and there is barely anyone left from the Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Terry Leahy days. Not only does this cause an exodus of talent and expertise, it also makes you an easy target for critics looking to identify what has got wrong. The managers you fire will not hesitate to brief against you. Whisper it quietly, but it’s at least worth keeping some of the executive team so you can fire them one by one later down the line. It will make everyone think you are actually doing something.

4) Never criticise the former boss in public

This is an important one. You must keep your dignity in public even when the company starts misfiring. I imagine Justin’s relentless enthusiasm, public profile and self-confidence has grated a little, particularly because he is younger than you, and you were his boss at Asda. But you should leave others to judge his performance.

5) Line up a big-hitter to question the previous management

While you should never criticise Justin, I suggest you find someone who can. When Lord MacLaurin, the former Tesco boss, stood up at the supermarket chain’s annual meeting in 2013 and said he was “sad” at the legacy left by Sir Terry Leahy, it took the headlines away from criticism of the existing management’s strategy. What is Lord Sainsbury up to these days?

6) Come up with a gimmick that makes stakeholders feel better

Tesco has the hudl tablet computer, Manchester United have new signing Juan Mata. These investments have not addressed the key issues for these institutions – weak supermarket sales and a weak midfield – but have boosted morale among stakeholders and apparently underlined the ambition of the organisations. Sainsbury’s needs a ploy of its own in case things start to go wrong. Perhaps you could dust off Justin’s sketchy plans to open a supermarket in China . . . if they ever actually existed.

7) Don’t lose to your main rivals at the first attempt

This is an obvious one, but it really will help in the long run. David Moyes lost his first Manchester derby 4-1, and Philip Clarke’s first Christmas against Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons ended in a profits warning. Those setbacks have set the tone for the rest of their tenures. Try to make your first Sainsbury’s trading update in October as unremarkable as possible. Given that Sainsbury’s sales are currently growing at the slowest rate for nine years, I am a bit worried about this one.

8) Distance yourself from the previous regime . . . even if you were at the heart of it

Mike, even though you have been on the Sainsbury’s board since 2004, remember that every decision taken since then was by Justin. Just as every decision taken at Tesco between 1997 and 2011 was by Sir Terry. This will be extremely useful if trading starts to deteriorate. Obviously, however, you had a key role in the decisions that turned out to be correct. Brand Match, investment in convenience stores and avoiding the horse-meat crisis – they were all down to you.

Anyway, having said all this, I am sure you will be fine and Sainsbury’s will keep performing well after July. Justin says the “best years are still to come” and, let’s face it, he cares about his public profile. He knows that if Sainsbury’s performance deteriorates, his reputation will be tarnished. What can go wrong? In the meantime, I suggest you take a holiday. Apparently Qatar is pleasant at this time of year . . .